Vancouver filming locations

June 28, 2010June 27, 2010

Eric Hamber Secondary School from “Juno”

The third and final Juno filming location that I stalked while in Vancouver last month was the supposed Minneapolis-area Dancing Elk High School – the learning institution attended by Juno MacGuff (aka Ellen Page), her dorky baby-daddy Paulie Bleeker (aka Michael Cera), and her absolutely hilarious best friend, Leah (aka Olivia Thirlby). In real life, Dancing Elk High School is known as Eric Hamber Secondary School and it is located a good 1,400 miles away from Minneapolis in the Shaughnessy neighborhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, directly next door to the VanDusen Botanical Garden. The school, which was named after a former Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, was originally founded in 1962 and currently boasts 1,690 students in grades eight through twelve. I found this location, once again, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, who in turn tracked it down thanks to this trusty Flikr page. Thank you, Owen!

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Eric Hamber Secondary School is featured numerous times throughout Juno, most notably in the beginning scene in which Juno is shown riding her bike to Dancing Elk and then locking it up at a bike rack located in front of the school’s east-facing entrance. Sadly, in real life that bike rack does not exist, but aside from that, I am very happy to report that Eric Hamber Secondary School looks much the same in person as it did onscreen in the movie.

Quite a bit of the school’s interior also appeared in Juno, but, unfortunately, the buildings were all locked up while we were there, so we were not able to take a peek inside.

The school’s outdoor track and field area was also featured in the scene in which Paulie leaves his track meet early in order to go to the hospital to be with Juno after she has her baby. That is another area of the school that we, unfortunately, were not able to see, though.

According to Wikipedia, Eric Hamber’s parking lot also made several appearances in the ‘80s television series 21 Jump Street, which was filmed exclusively on location in Canada. The school also boasts quite a long list of notable alumni, including Smallville actress Kristin Kreuk, Disney animator Robert Bennett, The Daily Show writer Eric Drysdale, and former pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers Steve Wilson.

On a side note – Owen also managed to track down several other filming locations from Juno that we, unfortunately, did not have time to stalk while we were in the area. Those locations include the following: the house belonging to Mark (aka Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (aka Jennifer Garner), which can be found at 13926 23 Avenue in Surrey; the Honey and Milk convenience store where Juno writes a note to Vanessa on an old Jiffy Lube receipt, which is located at 9-1449 Prairie Avenue in Port Coquitlam; the Coquitlam Centre Mall where Juno and Olivia run into Vanessa while shopping, which can be found at 2929 Barnet Highway in Coquitlam; and Victoria Park where Juno and Olivia look at adoption ads in the Penny Saver, which is located on Victoria Drive & Kitchener Street in Vancouver.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding all of the Juno locations! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Juno high school, aka Eric Hamber Secondary School, is located at 5025 Willow Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. In the beginning of the movie, Juno is shown entering the school from its Willow Street entrance and then locking up her bike at the bike rack located in front of the school’s east facing doors, as depicted in the map above. Please remember that this location is an educational institution that is currently in use. I would not recommend visiting it while classes are in session, but would instead recommend stopping by after hours or on a weekend.

June 24, 2010June 23, 2010

Juno’s House from “Juno”

While I realize that most of my fellow stalkers are currently clamoring for me to put my Pacific Northwest blogging on hold in order to write about locales in the Southern California area, there are two more locations from the Academy Award-winning movie Juno that I wanted to blog about before doing so. So, please bear with me for now, as I promise to get back to my L.A. roots first thing next week. 🙂 In the meantime, the second Juno location that I stalked while in Vancouver three weeks ago was the supposed Minnesota-area house where the flick’s eponymous lead character, the lovable, but quirky Juno MacGuff (aka Ellen Page), lived with her equally lovable, but quirky parents, Mac (aka J.K. Simmons) and Brenda (aka Allison Janney). I, of course, found this location yet again thanks to fellow stalker Owen who had, in turn, tracked it down thanks to this ever-informative Flikr page. Thank you, Owen! On a side note, I am quickly discovering the endless values of using Flikr as a stalking tool. The site is an enormous treasure trove of location information that one can easily sift through using key word searches and I highly recommend it to anyone who is currently trying to track down an elusive locale. But, as usual, I digress.

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According to this fabulous February 2008 Vancouver Sun article about Juno filming locations in the area, two different homes actually stood in for the MacGuff residence in the movie – one property was used for all interior filming, while a different one entirely was used for all of the exterior scenes. The article states that while scouting residences for his lead character in January of 2007, just one short month before filming began, director Ivan Reitman, along with Canadian location scout Neil Robertson, sought out an average-looking, middle-America-type home that had some “old-school” elements to it, like La-Z-Boy recliners and wood paneling. Reitman found his perfect home (pictured above) in the Dunbar area of West Vancouver. Unfortunately, though, upon closer inspection, the property’s interior proved to be too small for the filming, so, the scenes involving Juno’s kitchen, family room, and basement had to be shot at a different residence, which was also located in the Dunbar area, although I am not sure of exactly where. The shooting of the interior scenes took a week to complete, during which time the owner, Yvonne Kolstee – along with her cat – had to relocate to a hotel. And although one of Kolstee’s lamps did make an appearance in the flick, for the most part her property was completely revamped for the filming. According to the article, set-designers made her “multi-million dollar home in Dunbar look like a trailer”. Which begs the question, why not just build a set to film on? Ah, I’ll never understand the decision-making process behind choosing filming locations. Anyway, the article also states that Kolstee used the money she made off of the filming to take not one, but two vacations to Mexico, along with trips to India and Singapore, as well. Oh, when are location scouts going to come knocking on my door??? 😉

I am very happy to report that the home which was used for the exterior of Juno’s residence looks pretty much EXACTLY the same in person as it did onscreen in the movie.

The only notable difference is the fact that the tree from which Juno tried to hang herself using a few feet of Red Rope licorice in the beginning of the flick is not there in real life. In actuality, that tree was a fake that was brought in solely for the filming. The MacGuff residence is absolutely adorable in person and it’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use it.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Juno’s house from the hit movie Juno is located at 4053 32 Avenue West in the Dunbar suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia. Mark and Vanessa’s house, which we, unfortunately, didn’t have time to stalk, is located at 13926 23 Avenue in the city of Surrey, which is located about 30 miles southeast of Vancouver.

June 23, 2010June 22, 2010

Bleeker’s House from “Juno”

Another Vancouver location that fellow stalker Owen managed to track down was the supposed Minnesota-area house belonging to dorky high school track-star Paulie Bleeker (aka Michael Cera) in the 2007 breakout dramedy Juno. And even though I was not a big fan of the flick – it was funny and all, but not especially spectacular and, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, dealt with the issue of teenage pregnancy far too cavalierly for my taste – because it was such a huge hit and because I was in the area three weeks ago, I just had to stalk the house where Paulie lived. I should mention here that I did love Ellen Page’s performance in the movie – she was absolutely adorable, not to mention the fact that her acting was phenomenal. So, I guess there’s that. 🙂 But I digress. Owen managed to find the Bleeker family residence thanks to a Flikr page which posted a number of photos of locales featured in Juno, along with a rather vague description of where they could be found. From there, he did a bit of cyber-stalking and was fairly quickly able to pin down the exact location of Paulie’s house. Thank you, Owen!

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According to the blog written by Academy-Award-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody during the filming of the flick, Bleeker’s house was the very first location that the cast and crew shot at. Sadly, though, the owners of the property gave the exterior of their home a slight facelift after filming wrapped, so the residence looks a bit different today than it did on February 14, 2007, when the filming of Juno began. Boo!

The most notable difference, for me at least, was the fact that the mailbox which Juno filled with Tic Tacs candies in order to surprise Bleeker was not actually there in real life.

Nor was it there in the movie’s final scene, though, which was a fairly big gaff on the filmmakers’ part.

Because Bleeker’s mailbox was M.I.A. in the movie’s closing scene, I am fairly certain that it was, in actuality, just a prop that was brought in for the filming. As you can see in the above photograph, the home’s real life mailbox is located just to the left of the front door.

And I, of course, just had to sit in the same spot where Bleeker and Juno sat while singing The Moldy Peaches’ “Anyone Else But You” in that final scene.

Amazingly enough, while we were stalking the house, the owner happened to walk outside – well, truth be told, she actually came outside to investigate why I was sitting on her front stoop 😉 – and she truly could NOT have been nicer. She answered all of my silly little questions about the filming and didn’t even mind at all that I was sitting on her property. She explained that her home has become a frequent stalking destination ever since Juno premiered back in 2007 and that visitors frequently stop by to pose for photographs on her front stoop. She said she doesn’t really mind the massive attention her home draws as the majority of the picture-takers are all very respectful. 🙂 She also told us that some filming of Juno did take place inside of the house, which was redecorated slightly for the movie, and that she and her family even had to relocate to a hotel for a brief period of time during the shoot. She also got to meet actors Ellen Page and Michael Cera, whom she said were both extremely nice. 🙂 Love it!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bleeker’s house from Juno is located at 3961 36 Avenue West in Vancouver.

June 21, 2010June 21, 2010

Brockton Point Lighthouse from “The Crush”

The third and final filming location that I stalked from the 1993 thriller The Crush while I was visiting Vancouver two weeks ago was the Brockton Point Lighthouse – the spot where 14-year old Adrian Forrester (aka Alicia Silverstone) tried to seduce Nick Eliot (aka Cary Elwes), the much older man who was leasing her parents’ guest house in the flick. I found this location, once again, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, who in turn tracked it down via one of the movie’s crew members. Thank you, Owen! Brockton Point Lighthouse is one of three lighthouses that currently serve the Port of Vancouver and is located in British Columbia’s extremely popular, 1,000-acre Stanley Park. The original Brockton Point Lighthouse tower was built in 1890, but it was replaced in 1914 with the tower that is currently standing today. The lighthouse was designed by Canadian Colonel William P. Anderson, a civil engineer who over his lifetime designed more than 500 lighthouses situated along the Canadian waterfront.

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Brockton Point Lighthouse only pops up in one scene in The Crush, but it is a rather pivotal scene which provides the movie’s turning point. In the scene, the seemingly innocent Adrian begs Nick to take her for a ride in his Valiant, claiming that there is a place she really wants to show him. That place is the Brockton Point Lighthouse and it is there that Adrian first confides in Nick, telling him that she has no friends and that most people treat her like a freak due to her abnormally high intelligence. When Nick promises to be a friend to her, Adrian immediately kisses him and the story takes off from there.

As I mentioned in last Thursday’s post about the Forrester mansion, while The Crush was set in Seattle, the entire movie was actually filmed on location in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ironically enough, though, when Nick and Adrian first pull up to the lighthouse, you can clearly see the word “Brockton” painted on the ground. I am very surprised that producers didn’t have the lettering digitally removed in post-production, being that the Brockton Point Lighthouse is a fairly well-known Canadian landmark. In fact, Stanley Park, where the lighthouse is located, is pretty much known as Vancouver’s number one tourist attraction and is visited by over eight million people per year.

Sadly, though, when we got there, we discovered that the lighthouse is currently fenced in and closed to the public while it undergoes an extensive, $2 million federal restoration project. And, while the lighthouse tower is still visible, the area where Adrian kissed Nick is, unfortunately, not. Such a bummer!!

Brockton Point Lighthouse features unparalleled views of Burrard Inlet and the Lions Gate Bridge and is a truly beautiful place. I so wish I could have seen it at night as the view of the lights of the North Vancouver skyline is supposed to be spectacular. In fact, I’m fairly certain that the lighthouse’s spectacular views are the main reason that it was chosen as the site of Adrian and Nick’s first kiss.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Brockton Point Lighthouse is located on Brockton Point at the far east end of Stanley Park, off of Stanley Park Drive, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its exact location is denoted with the blue arrow in the above aerial map.

June 18, 2010June 17, 2010

Nick’s (Almost) Apartment from “The Crush”

Just a mile and a half away from the Forrester mansion, which appeared in the 1993 thriller The Crush and which I blogged about yesterday, is the supposed Seattle-area apartment house where Nick Eliot (aka Cary Elwes) tried to rent a unit after discovering that his current landlords’ 14-year old daughter Adrian (aka Alicia Silverstone) had developed a highly-inappropriate and psychotically-obsessive crush on him. I found this location, yet again, thanks to master stalker Owen, who had managed to track down one of the movie’s crew members who happened to remember the general vicinity where the apartment house was located. From there, Owen once again employed Google Street View to pinpoint the property’s exact location. And even though the building only showed up in two very brief scenes in The Crush, because of my Alicia Silverstone connection, I just had to stalk the place.

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I am very happy to report that Nick’s apartment house looks much the same in person as it did onscreen in The Crush, except for one pretty glaring difference – the building is now located in a different place.

Yes, you read that right – according to this Flikr website, Nick’s apartment house was formerly located just a bit north of where it is now, adjacent to a vacant lot, and was numbered 2132 (as you can see in the above screen capture). When the neighboring Reeve house, a historic property, was moved for preservation purposes in 1999, the Crush apartment also had to be moved a few hundred feet to the south to accommodate it. The Crush building’s address number was subsequently changed to 2156 and, because it had to be built into the side of a hill, appears to be a bit lower to the ground now than it was previously. Isn’t that incredible? I mean, I’ve heard of filming locations being torn down entirely, but I’ve never heard of one being moved from one plot of land to another! I’m so, so glad that the property was preserved, though, for all of us stalkers to continue to appreciate. You can see some great interior photographs of the building’s super-cute little front unit on a former real estate listing from 2008 here. I absolutely LOVE the built-in bookshelves next to the fireplace!! So darn cute! I am a little upset, though, that the real estate agent failed to make mention of the property’s cinematic history on the listing. Hmph!

On an interesting side note – While doing research on The Crush for yesterday’s blog post, I came across some information on IMDB which stated that the flick’s screenwriter/director Alan Shapiro based his screenplay on actual events from his life that took place while he was living in a guesthouse on the property of a wealthy Beverly Hills family back in 1982. And while I don’t know how much of the movie was actually based on fact and how much was embellished for dramatic effect, apparently Shapiro touted his production as being inspired by “real-life events”. Quite a bit of the story must have been factual, though, because after the movie premiered in April of 1993, Shapiro was sued by his former landlords over the fact that he had named his lead character “Darian” – the actual name of his former landlords’ daughter. The lawsuit was eventually settled and producers agreed to dub the name “Adrian” in for “Darian” in all future airings and DVD/VHS copies of the flick.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The apartment Nick unsuccessfully tries to rent towards the end of The Crush is located at 2156 Cypress Street in Vancouver, British Columbia.

June 17, 2010November 6, 2016

“The Crush” Mansion

Another Vancouver location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest two weeks ago was the supposed Seattle-area mansion where Adrian Forrester (aka Alicia Silverstone) lived with her parents in the 1993 movie The Crush. And while I can’t say that I was a huge fan of the thriller/drama, because Alicia Silverstone grew up in the same relatively small city that I did – a suburb of San Francisco named San Mateo – The Crush has always held a special place in my heart. Especially because it was one of Alicia’s very first acting roles.

Before landing her leading role in The Crush at the age of 15, Alicia’s only other major onscreen appearance had been a bit part in the Season 5 episode of The Wonder Years titled “Road Test” (pictured above). She was still attending San Mateo High School when her Wonder Years episode aired, but by the time she was cast in The Crush she had left school permanently to pursue acting and the entire city of San Mateo was abuzz with the news of the local girl who made good. I can still remember when the movie was released and the furor it caused in my hometown. Not only did Alicia fly her two best friends out to L.A. for the big Hollywood premiere (as detailed in a huge article in our local paper that I still have a copy of somewhere), but pretty much her entire class headed over to our local movie theatre, Fashion Island Cinemas, on the day the movie opened to watch. The theatre was completely sold out and there was a big party afterwards. From what I remember, Alicia was in attendance, as well. I went to a different high school, so I was not invited to the viewing, but one of my good friends, who knew Alicia fairly well, got to attend and I can distinctly remember calling him up later that night and pretty much hanging on his every word as he described the evening to me. Oh, how I would have LOVED to have been there! But I digress.

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So, when fellow stalker Owen mentioned that he had managed to track down several of the locations featured in The Crush, I just HAD to stalk all of them – in honor of my hometown. 🙂 And the locale that I was most excited about stalking, of course, was the ginormous mansion where the Forrester family lived in the flick. Owen found the residence thanks to one of the movie’s location assistants, who happened to remember the name of the street where it was located. From there Owen used Google Street View to determine its exact location. YAY! Thank you, Owen! In real life, the Crush mansion, which is known as “The Disher House”, was constructed in 1912 by British architect Paul Phipps. The home, which is absolutely beautiful in person, was originally built for a financier named J.B. Johnson, but is named after the Disher family, who lived there from 1916 through 1972. You can read more about the mansion in the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Guidebook for their 2003 Open Vancouver Heritage House Tour here. And you can take a peek at some close-up photographs of the home here.

I am very happy to report that the Disher house looks much the same in person as it did onscreen in The Crush, but unfortunately there is quite a bit foliage in the front yard that limits the view of the property from the street. Both the interior and the exterior of the residence were used in the flick.

Sadly, the apartment that Nick Eliot (aka Cary Elwes) rented does not exist in real life. Producers had it built on top of the home’s real life garage exclusively for the filming and it was subsequently removed after the filming had wrapped.

The Forrester’s neighbor’s pool, which shows up a couple of times in The Crush, is located in the backyard of the home that is directly east of the Crush mansion. Apparently, the pool was the site of a deleted scene during which Adrian and Nick take a midnight dip. That scene is later referred by Adrian when she is being examined by an officer at the police station after falsely accusing Nick of rape.

UPDATE – The Crush mansion is for sale! You can check out some interior photographs of it here.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Adrian Forrester’s house from The Crush is located at 1526 Angus Drive in Vancouver, British Columbia.

June 16, 2010June 15, 2010

The Cullen House from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”

Another location that I stalked while in Vancouver two weeks ago was the residence where the Cullen family – including Edward (aka Robert Pattinson), Alice (aka Ashley Greene), Jasper (aka Jackson Rathbone), Carlisle (aka Peter Facinelli), Esme (aka Elizabeth Reaser), Emmett (aka Kellan Lutz), and Rosalie (aka Nikki Reed) – lived in the 2009 movie The Twilight Saga: New Moon. And even though I am not at all a fan of the Twilight series, nor have I yet to even see the New Moon installment, I was absolutely dying to stalk the home where filming took place ever since first seeing it in a real estate listing when it went on the market this past November. From what I saw in the listing, the modern-style abode was nothing short of spectacular, so when fellow stalker Kerry mentioned that she knew the property’s location, I practically salivated and begged her to take me there. And I have to say that, in person, the home definitely did NOT disappoint! The Cullen house is absolutely breathtaking and I would give anything to live in something even remotely as beautiful. And while I would have loved to have taken a peek at the interior of the property, unfortunately, due to the many inquiries about the home from various Twi-hards the world over, the real estate agent is currently only offering tours to serious buyers.

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Oddly enough, the exterior of the West Vancouver-area home never actually appeared in New Moon. For the lone exterior shot featured in the flick (pictured above), producers used footage of the Hoke house in Portland, Oregon – the very same residence which stood in for the Cullen abode in the original Twilight movie. When it was decided that the Twilight sequel would be shot entirely on location in Canada – where filming is much less expensive than in the U.S. – location scouts had to track down a home which had somewhat similar interiors to the residence that was used in the original flick.

They found that home in West Vancouver and fans of the movie followed – in droves. Apparently the residence has become quite the tourist attraction ever since New Moon was filmed there beginning on April 15th of last year. The house was the setting for two scenes in the movie – the scene involving Bella’s ill-fated 18th birthday party and the scene in which the Cullen family is put to a vote to decide Bella’s fate. Those relatively short segments took a whopping four days to film. The same home will also be standing in for the interior of the Cullen residence in the upcoming The Twilight Saga: Eclipse movie.

The 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 5,117 square-foot abode, which was completely remodeled in 2001 and is currently for sale for a whopping $2,998,000, features 20 foot ceilings, a media room, slate and concrete flooring, a pool, a spa, a koi pond, a chef’s kitchen with granite countertops and cherry wood cabinets, and a 1/2 acre of wooded, creekside land. Ironically enough, the home’s real estate listing touts its numerous picture windows which allow for “bright sunfilled exposure” throughout – something I don’t think the Cullen family would have appreciated very much. 😉 You can view the home’s real estate listing here.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for not only finding this location, but for taking me to stalk it, as well! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Cullen house from The Twilight Saga: New Moon is located at 118 Stevens Drive in West Vancouver, British Columbia. You can check out the home’s real estate website here.

June 11, 2010June 16, 2011

The Hyatt Regency Vancouver from “Love Happens”

My fifth and final Love Happens location – which I found thanks to fellow stalker Owen, as was the case with all of the other Love Happens locations I stalked while in Canada two weeks ago – is the Hyatt Regency Vancouver hotel, where Burke Ryan (aka Aaron Eckhart) hosted his week-long “A-OKAY!” grief workshop seminar in the 2009 romantic comedy. The Hyatt was one of Love Happens’ focal locations and appeared in countless scenes, including the scene in which florist Eloise Chandler (aka Jennifer Aniston), who hand-delivers floral arrangements to the hotel on a daily basis, first meets Burke. It is definitely not love at first sight, though, because, in one of the movie’s lighter moments, Eloise pretends to be deaf in order to avoid speaking with him. LOL

I cannot tell you how badly I wanted to go upstairs to take a photograph of the exact spot where Burke first caught Eloise writing the word “Quidnunc” with a pink pen on the hotel’s wall, which is located just outside of Room 1731 on the Hyatt Regency Vancouver’s 17th floor, but, sadly, a room key is required to gain access to each of the different floors. I explained to the concierge on duty that I was a film locations buff (using the word “stalker” in cases like this typically doesn’t help my cause – ha!) and that I really wanted to snap a quick photograph of “Eloise’s wall” and asked if there was any way she would allow me to take a brief trip up to the 17th floor, but she very adamantly said “No”. I told her that she could accompany me to make sure I didn’t cause any mischief while up there, but she again declined. HMPH! Such a bummer as seeing that wall in person was pretty much the only reason I wanted to stalk the hotel in the first place. 🙁 Ironically enough, the first Hyatt employee that I spoke with about the filming had absolutely NO IDEA WHATSOEVER that any sort of motion picture had been shot on the premises. After a few minutes of speaking with her she finally said, “Wait, so Love Happens was filmed here? In this hotel? Honestly?” I mean, HELLO! How do you not know something like that? It’s not like she was a new employee, either – she was actually working at the hotel at the time the movie was being filmed!! I really don’t understand people sometimes. Sigh!

I did get to stalk most of the other areas of the hotel that appeared in Love Happens, though, including the main lobby, which at the time of filming featured a Seattle’s Best Coffee bar near the main entrance. But I am VERY happy to report that Starbucks (my old staple) has now moved into that same space. YAY! 🙂

Also featured was the hotel’s check-in desk area;

the elevator bay located just off of the main lobby;

and the Gallery Lounge bar, which you can just barely see in the above photograph. According to the movie’s productions notes, the Vancouver Marriot Pinnacle Downtown hotel was also used in the filming of Love Happens, but I am unsure of exactly which scene it appeared in.

On a side note – no, you are not seeing things – that is actually an autographed photo of Michael Buble pictured above. Yes, a photograph of MB that was actually autographed . . . TO ME!!!!!!!!!!! The photo was gifted to me yesterday by fellow stalker Owen for my birthday and, as you can imagine, I literally just about PASSED OUT upon opening it!!!! I’m not joking when I say that my mouth was hanging open for a good five minutes. You’d think I would have screamed upon first laying eyes on it, but I was actually dead silent. It doesn’t happen often, but Owen managed to render me absolutely speechless! How did he get the autograph, you ask? (And believe me, that was the first question playing on my mind when I finally came to after opening it!) As fate would have it, Owen’s brother Paul has a good friend who is a regular on Saturday Night Live. When Owen found out that MB would be performing on the show WAY BACK in January of this year, he called in a massively huge favor and asked Paul’s friend if he would get an autograph for me. Paul’s friend came through BIG TIME and the result is the photograph you see above. What can I say except it’s, hands down, the BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT I’ve ever received! I told my friend Nat about it yesterday and she said, “Well, I guess I’m going to have to return what I got you, ‘cause there is no way it can compare to that! Tell Owen ’Thanks a lot!’” 🙂 My dad actually had surgery yesterday – yes, on my birthday – and when I opened Owen’s present in the morning before heading out to the hospital, I knew it was a good omen, especially being that my dad loves MB just as much as I do. Sure enough, the surgery went really well and, at the time of this writing, my dad has been out of pain for about ten hours. The doctors remain very hopeful that the surgery solved his problem, which, after two full years of him being in and out of the hospital on a regular basis and one VERY unsuccessful trip to the Mayo Clinic, would be simply amazing. So, truth be told, I received TWO of the best gifts of my life yesterday! And even though I spent the majority of the day in the hospital, I have to say it was, hands down, one of my best birthdays ever. 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location . . . and, ahem, for the AMAZING birthday present! Big THANK YOU to Paul, too! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Vancouver from Love Happens is located at 655 Burrard Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. Burke first caught Eloise writing on the wall just outside of Room 1731 on the hotel’s 17th floor. You can visit the Hyatt Regency Vancouver website here.

June 10, 2010June 16, 2011

The “Love Happens” Houses

Two other Vancouver-area locations that fellow stalker Owen managed to track down from the ultra-depressing 2009 romantic comedy Love Happens were the residences belonging to Eloise Chandler’s mom (aka Frances Conway) and Burke Ryan’s former in-laws (aka Martin Sheen and Deirdre Blades). Both homes are located about ten miles southeast of Vancouver in the Queens Park area of the city of New Westminster, British Columbia. And, as I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, even though I didn’t particularly like Love Happens, because it starred my girl Jen, I just had to stalk both locations.

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Eloise’s mom’s house only appears in one very brief scene in Love Happens, in which Eloise (aka Jennifer Aniston) stops by her mom’s residence in order to pick up the keys to a telephone truck she is borrowing from her mom’s neighbor, Bob. Why is she borrowing a telephone truck, you ask? Without giving too much away, I’ll just say it’s so that she and Burke (aka Aaron Eckhart) can “attend” a sold out Road Wave concert in a rather unconventional way.

I am very happy to report that Eloise’s mom’s house looks much the same in person as it did in Love Happens.

And I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home also appeared in the movie.

Located a little over a mile away from Eloise’s mom’s residence is the V.A. Brachat House, where Burke’s in-laws lived in Love Happens. The absolutely adorabe little house, which was built in 1940, popped up in two different scenes in the movie.

And, as was the case with Eloise’s mom’s residence, I believe that the real life interior of the V.A. Brachat house also appeared in the flick.

I am very happy to report that this house also looks much the same in person as it did in Love Happens.

I was most excited to see that the lightpost on which Rocky, the parrot, waited for Silver at the end of Love Happens was actually there in real life, too. So darn cool!

Missing in real life, of course, is the “Semper Fi” plaque and sword that ex-Marine Silver had posted above his front door in the movie.

Burke’s in-law’s house also appeared in the Season 3 episode of the television series Supernatural titled “A Very Supernatural Christmas”. I found this information thanks to the Supernatural Locations Website, a fabulous site dedicated to finding each and every locale ever featured on the show. So darn cool!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding these locations! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Eloise’s mom’s house from Love Happens is located at 202 7 Avenue East in New Westminster, British Columbia, ten miles outside of Vancouver. Burke’s in-law’s house is located at 115 Queens Avenue, also in New Westminster.

June 9, 2010June 16, 2011

The Water Street Cafe from “Love Happens”

Just down the street from the former Tabu Boutique, the storefront that masqueraded as Eloise’s Garden in the 2009 movie Love Happens which I blogged about yesterday, is Water Street Cafe, the upscale restaurant where Eloise Chandler (aka Jennifer Aniston) and Burke Ryan (aka Aaron Eckhart) ate dinner during their extremely awkward first date at the beginning of the flick. I found this locale once again thanks to fellow stalker Owen who somehow managed to track down almost every single location featured in the movie. Unfortunately, though, because our time in Vancouver was limited (we were only in town for less than 24 hours as we wanted to spend a full two days in Seattle), while we were able to stalk the exterior of the Water Street Cafe, we weren’t able to grab a bite to eat there. As so often happens on vacation, there were just far too many locations on my To-Stalk list and not enough hours in the day to see them all. 🙁

In Love Happens, Eloise and Burke eat at a window-side table overlooking Cambie Street.

After finishing their meal, the two walk out of the restaurant’s main entrance on Water Street . . .

. . . and around the corner onto Cambie Street, where Burke confesses to Eloise that he hasn’t been on a date in over three years.

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The Water Street Cafe was first opened in 1988 by Domenique Sabatino. I’m quite bummed that we didn’t get a chance to eat there as the restaurant’s Italian-inspired menu looks pretty amazing, especially the Stuffed Pancetta Wrapped Chicken entree – a spinach stuffed chicken breast that is wrapped in pancetta and topped with brie. OH MY LORD does that sounds good!! 🙂 Especially since my dad is once again in the hospital and I’ve been existing solely on hospital cafeteria food for the past six days. Yeech!

Water Street Cafe is located directly across the street from the world-famous Vancouver Steam Clock, a large glass, antique-looking clock that is powered entirely via a combination of balance weights and steam. The clock was first built in 1977 by horologist Raymond Saunders and has been whistling and shooting out steam at fifteen minute intervals ever since. There are only six other working steam clocks in the entire world and the one in Gastown has been called Vancouver’s most photographed attraction. According to the Love Happens production notes, producers had to time the filming of the scene shot outside of the Water Street Cafe in accordance with the every-quarter-hour whistle of the clock. 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Water Street Cafe from Love Happens is located at 300 Water Street in the Gastown area of Vancouver, British Columbia. You can visit the Water Street Cafe website here. The Vancouver Steam Clock is located across the street at 305 Water Street.